Mr. Richard Feynman Essay, Research Paper
The person that I choose to present to you is Dr. Richard P. Feynman. In 1918, Richard Feynman was born in Far Rockaway, a small town on the sea in New York. He grew up in a typical family of the neighborhood – they weren’t particularly well off. “Ritty”, as he was called by his peers, showed an early interest in science. This became apparent when at the age of about eleven he set up a “lab” in his bedroom. There he began to play with electronics. “Ritty” earned a reputation as the boy who “fixes radios by thinking.” He went to a customer s house, listened to the radio, thought for a while, and decided he knew what was wrong with it. It was in this way that “Ritty” first showed a real affinity for science and the scientific method. This early attitude would mark his personality for the rest of his life, leaving him with a great deal of respect for blue collar workers, whom he saw as “real men.” In high school, Richard Feynman excelled at mathematics and science, but did unremarkably in other subjects. It was math and science where he focused his energies. When he entered his senior year, he knew he needed to go on to college. He applied to Columbia University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Rejected at Columbia, he was accepted at MIT, where he started in the fall of 1935.In his sophomore yearat MIT, Feynman was one of two sophomores to sign up for Introduction to Theoretical Physics, a class for seniors and graduate students. He quickly showed himself to be outstanding in the subject. When his teacher became confused with a problem on the blackboard, would often ask Feynman to complete it. Once he completed his four years at MIT, Feynman was pushed to attend Princeton by the head of the physics department at MIT, Dr. Slater. At Princeton, Feynman soon began work with professor John Wheeler, with whom, he began to truly explore the world of quantum physics. Together they worked on a problem regarding interaction between electrons and developed a theory that, they felt, worked. Wheeler suggested that Feynman give a seminar explaining the theory, and he agreed. It turned out that this, Feynman’s first-ever seminar was attended by physics greats including Einstein, Wolfgang Pauli, Henry Russell and Johnny Neumann (a mathematician).During his final year at Princeton, Feynman was approached by Robert Wilson, a professor at Princeton. Wilson had been asked to head a group of physicists from Princeton on war work. Specifically, he was to work on a theory for how to effectively separate Uranium 235 from the more common 238 in order to build a bomb, an atomic bomb. At first Feynman did not want to get involved, but he eventually agreed.In 1942 Feynman joined the team of physicists at the newly constructed Los Alamos site, as a theoretical physicist. There he was able to satisfy his patriotic desire to help his country and at the same time explore a fascinating and highly practical realm of physics. Feynman’s abilities were noticed by his superiors at Los Alamos, and he was placed in charge of the theoretical division.About three years after Feynman’s arrival at Los Alamos, the day came when the bomb was finally ready. Twenty miles from the Trinity test site, Feynman waited and watched. The bomb went off as planned, and Feynman, along with all but one of the physicists present rejoiced. The work of three years had come to fruition.
After Los Alamos, Feynman worked on the ideas he had had back at Princeton. His work centered on the idea of summing probabilities and on the principle of least action. His ideas could be represented in the form of diagrams that made computations significantly easier. But he was having difficulty developing the theory, and a competing scholar, Schwinger s work was meeting increasing approval and acceptance.Eventually, Feynman developed his theory to the point where he felt it truly worked. It was published and students began slowly to begin using his theory, as opposed to Schwinger’s which was difficult and time-consuming. Feynman’s theory allowed physicists to deal with quantum electrodynamics in a significantly easier way. One student said of Feynman’s theory, “Each diagram could replace an effective lifetime of Schwingerian algebra.” Feynman’s theory was a success.After four years at Cornell, Feynman was offered a job as a professor at Cal tech University. While there he developed, through the teaching of his course, a famous set of lectures. He endeavored to teach his students in such a way that they would not only know the physics, but fully understand the physics. Students found it incredibly difficult, but it gained an increasing reputation among established physicists. The lectures were transcribed into a series called The Feynman Lectures and comprised three volumes. Universities around the country attempted to adopt them as their texts, but found that they were simply too rigorous for most students. Decades after their writing, they remain revered physics texts.In 1965, while at Cal tech, Feynman was awarded the Nobel Prize. He was cited for his “fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics with deep ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles.” The Nobel prize was actually to be shared by three physicists: Feynman, Schwinger and Tomonaga. They had each contributed extensively to the theory of quantum electrodynamics.Feynman’s remaining years at Cal tech he spent honing his courses, and doing a very wide range of research. He taught a mystery seminar known as “Physics X” which many said was the most powerful course they ever took. He also researched fields ranging from quantum mechanics to genetics.In 1986, shortly after the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle, Feynman was asked to join the investigatory commission which would attempt to determine what happened. Feynman ended up exposing the fault in the shuttle in dramatic fashion. He determined that the O-rings that seal the joints between the rockets were a potentially dangerous component, if they gave out. Through deductive reasoning and some sparse experimentation proved the O-rings were at fault for the Challenger explosion.At the time of the investigation however, Feynman was already suffering from cancer. In the fall of 1987, his condition worsened and a tumor was discovered in his abdomen. At 69 years of age he knew he was dying. He wrapped up his affairs and, on February 18, 1988, one of the greatest men in science passed away.